Old-School Corporate Greed
Hundreds of men were illegally rounded up and brutally deported
from Bisbee 100 years ago. Here’s why.
July 12, 1917 was supposed to be one of the best days in the life of Eli Vuksanovich.
.
A few years earlier, he and several members of his extended family
had made the dangerous trip from their native Montenegro in the
war-ravaged Balkans to their new home in the southwest part of the
United States. Vuksanovich had found work in the sprawling copper
mine in Bisbee, Arizona and had his sights firmly set on the American
dream built around home and work and family.
That very day, he was returning home from Tombstone, the then-seat
of Cochise County. Having picked up the paperwork that would allow him
to become an American citizen, he was hurrying back to Bisbee to share
the good news. As he made his way down through Tombstone Canyon
at the northwest edge of town, armed men wielding rifles accosted him.
Most of the men were wearing suits; all of the men had white armbands
that were prominently displayed.
The armed men approached Vuksanovich and began shouting orders at him.
He gave them a puzzled look and, in his best possible English (considering
the circumstances), he attempted to explain that there must be some kind
of mistake. The armed vigilantes were having none of it and they brusquely
herded Vuksanovich and others down the winding road toward the middle
of town. Along the way, the number of armed men grew into the hundreds,
while the number of those being accosted and pushed along grew into the thousands.
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/old-school-corporate-greed/Content?oid=10117057
